The Year AI Gets a Body: 2026 Is the Dawn of Embodied Intelligence
BARCELONA / BEIJING — For the past two years, artificial intelligence has lived inside screens. It could mimic human thought but couldn't touch the human world. In 2026, that is finally changing.This week at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2026 in Barcelona, under the theme "The IQ Era," a new kind of worker took center stage: "metal-collar" humanoid robots . The four-day exhibition, drawing nearly 100,000 participants from over 200 countries, showcased breakthroughs ranging from robot nurses to autonomous lunar rovers .Industry leaders agree: 2026 is shaping up to be the "Year of Physical AI" — where AI systems don't just understand language, but perceive, reason about, and…